Getting Lucky
by Timeloopy
Summary: Gabriel is prone to invading Riley's privacy and she finally gets a well-deserved day off. If Gabriel plays his cards right, he might get lucky. Fluff. Rated T for very mild innuendo.


Getting Lucky

The sky was a gorgeous bright shade of blue that could have brightened even the darkest of moods and Riley Neal was not immune to its effect. She jogged her normal route with a smile on her face and an easy grace that had many a pram-pushing mom cursing her under their breath. She had foregone her usual pulse pumping playlist for one that she'd thrown together the last time she'd made it to the coast for a weekend at the beach. In short, she was on vacation – ok, technically it was just her day off but nine times out of ten those got cancelled either by circumstance or choice.

Not today though – today, her charge was in the capable hands of Agent Jamieson and she was taking the day off to fulfill an agenda of her very own. She refused to feel even the least bit guilty about the last conversation she'd had with Gabriel. It had gone about like she expected.

"Secret Service agents don't get days off," Gabriel had said when she brought it up.

"Of course they do, and besides, I'm not secret service any more, I'm Cybercom," she'd retorted.

"You mean they're going to leave their precious chip unprotected for an entire day?" he'd asked, getting that wounded poor-me-they've-turned-me-into-a-machine tone to his voice that cropped up when he was feeling sorry for himself. She hadn't succumbed to the temptation to comfort him this time.

"Nope," she'd said flippantly. "Agent Jameson will babysit you – try to behave."

"I don't need a babysitter," he'd growled.

"Riiiight," she'd said, rolling her eyes. "Keep telling yourself that."

"What are you going to do on your day off anyway? You live this job," Gabriel snapped.

"I have other interest, you know," she said.

"Martial arts? You going to go off and work on pinky tricks?" he teased.

"Maybe," she said with a shrug.

"Seriously, where you going?" he said. "You haven't booked a flight so it has to be local. No major purchases on your debit card – a full tank of gas, hmmm."

"Oh, for heaven's sake," she said irritably, hating it when he reminded her that he had access to her personal information. "I'm planning to go get lucky. Satisfied?"

He'd blinked – taken aback for only a moment. "Well, whose the lucky guy?" he'd quipped.

"I'm sure you'll dig around til you find out," she'd muttered as they reached his door. "Can a woman not have any privacy at all around you?"

Gabriel clutched a hand to his chest, feigning a wounded expression, "That hurts, Riley. I'm a gentleman – if you tell me not to peek – I won't."

"Don't peek." She said, grabbing hold of the offer.

Gabriel laughed and Riley narrowed her eyes.

"I'll bet you can't resist looking into my financials or my GPS tracker or anything else to do with me for an entire day," Riley challenged.

"What are the stakes?" Gabriel countered.

"If you invade my privacy on my off day, you have to let me enter every single door first without complaint for a month," Riley said.

"And when I win?" he asked.

Riley smirked. "You'll get lucky."

Gabriel's mouth dropped open.

"Close your mouth, didn't your mama ever tell you not to stare?" Riley said over her shoulder as she walked away.

As Riley considered the conversation on this sunny morning, she was pretty sure that the bet was a win-win for her regardless of the outcome. After all, it wasn't entirely Gabriel's fault that information flooded his brain in an almost constant assault. She was used to it and had learned not to be offended by his knowledge of her every move. And the truth was, her plan for the day did have a little something to do with him.

As she showered and dressed, she played over again in her mind the conversations she and Gabriel seemed to have on almost a daily basis in one form or another. He was afraid he was losing his humanity. It terrified him – the only thing that seemed to scare him – and that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Fear was human after all. But it worried her that most of his human emotions were negative ones lately.

She had something in mind to fix that. He needed a little love in his life – someone to come home to – someone to curl up beside on the sofa at the end of a long day. And if today went the way she hoped it would, he'd have that tonight.

Meanwhile, Gabriel was fighting a number of battles with himself on that same sunny morning.

"Are you always this irritable when Riley checks in?" Agent Jameson complained after Gabriel bawled him out for not showing up with coffee.

Gabriel didn't reply but grabbed his jacket and headed out the door with Jameson in pursuit. He led the man around the city while he did everything he could possibly think of to avoid looking up Riley and her activities. Sometime around lunch, it occurred to him that this was sort of an honor system thing and that surely there was no way she could know if he peeked just a little. What if she was in trouble? What if she'd gone out with some guy she met on the internet and he'd taken more than she offered? He began to cyber render a scenario entailing all his worst fears.

"You are aware that you're standing in the middle of the street, right?" Jameson interrupted his line of thought.

Gabriel became aware of his surroundings and snarled at Jameson the same way he'd been doing all day.  
The agent didn't envy Riley Neal at all by now – in fact, if she ever wanted another day off, he planned to have some dread disease – the swine flu, the black plague, ebola - pretty much anything was better than this.

Eventually, Gabriel and his temporary protector returned to his apartment where Gabriel was surprised to find Riley sitting on his couch in shorts and a sweatshirt, her hair in a ponytail, wearing flip-flops of all things. She looked cute as a button.

Jameson just looked relieved.

"You got this?" he asked.

"Go home, Chris," she said with a wink. "I owe you one."

"You owe me 10," he replied but left before she changed her mind.

Gabriel eyed the gorgeous brunette on his sofa.

"Sooooo," he drawled. "I didn't peek."

"No," Riley agreed, "I don't think you did."

He approached the sofa and cocked his head flirtatiously. "And not that I'm necessarily going to hold you to it, but you did say, if I won the bet, I'd get lucky."

Riley maintained a very serious expression as she nodded. "That's right. You gave me my privacy for a day and now you get lucky."

Gabriel sat down on the sofa beside her and leaned in so close she could feel his breath on her cheek. Her heart rate fluttered a little – the man did have moves – she had to give him that. She leaned over and placed her lips near his ear and whispered, "The bedroom."

Gabriel swallowed and sat back, gaping at her. He wasn't sure which of them was bluffing – but if it was him, she'd just called his bluff. Riley grinned mischievously and rose from her seat, walking slowly to the door of his bedroom and turning the knob, looking over her shoulder and tossing him a deliberately seductive wink.

He stood.

She turned the doorknob.

He took a step forward.

She pushed the door open.

Out bounded a beautiful golden Labrador retriever that made a beeline for Gabriel and damn near licked him to death.

Riley burst out laughing at his surprise.

"Meet Lucky!" she said gasping between chuckles.

Her laughter was contagious and Gabriel couldn't help but join her even though the joke was on him. Riley joined the two blondes giving the four-legged one an affectionate pat, and the two-legged one a squeeze on the arm.

"I got Lucky," Gabriel conceded.

"Yep," Riley said, then more seriously, "Nothing like a dog to remind a fellow of his humanity, I thought. You like him?"

"Always wanted a dog," Gabriel said, his arms around the beast. "You're always taking care of me, aren't you?"

"My job," she said softly. But it was clear from her tone that taking care of Gabriel was becoming less about the job every day.

The end.


End file.
